companyofheroesfandomcom-20200223-history
United States
The''' United States of America''' (or, the Americans) is one of the two factions featured in Company of Heroes. As one of the Allies, it leads the invasion of Nazi-Occupied Europe on D-Day, alongside the British army. The American'''s are a very balanced faction, equally capable of both defense and offense, but excelling in neither. They are the only faction to have its own single-player campaign in the original Company of Heroes. Historically, the United States was late to enter the war, but was absolutely essential to the Allied victory from the get-go. Overview The United States is the primary Allied faction in Company of Heroes. Their massive war machine fuels the invasion of Nazi-Occupied Europe, bringing with it enough fresh manpower and firepower to relieve the Wehrmacht of its earlier conquests. The '''American Army joined the war late. As a result it is very well equipped, and has a large number of fresh conscripts to beat back the war-weary German army. American soldiers may not be the most experienced, but they are highly motivated and outnumber their enemy and enjoy the virtually endless supply of equipment, weapons and assets brought over the the massive convoys traveling daily across the Atlantic Ocean. The American'''s field a rather limited variety of units, but nonetheless have at least one unit for any battlefield role. Thanks to their large number of fresh conscripts, '''American Infantry units are extremely cheap and easy to replace, thus forming the back-bone for their entire army. American Vehicles, though expensive, keep a very good balance between offensive firepower, mobility, and protection. Overall, this faction combines good defense with good offense, concentrating on whichever is most important at the time. Of course this also means that they excel at neither option, but rather strive to find the right balance between them. Their Command Trees also refrain from putting too much emphasis on either of these options, resulting in a faction that can easily adapt to the changing situation on the battlefield. In their single-player campaign, we follow the American army's Invasion of Normandy, as it struggles to establish a beach-head and later break out into the French mainland. Different American companies are portrayed, each assisting the invasion in its own fashion, from the infantrymen assaulting the beaches to the Airborne troops landing behind enemy lines, and finally the Armor Company making their break in-land. Additionally, the American Airborne Divisions play a significant role in Operation Market Garden, the Panzer Elite single-player campaign in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. Basic Force Composition The American army fields 12 different types of units, with 3 infantry squads, 3 heavy weapon teams, 3 vehicles and 3 tanks. In general, these units cover the entire spectrum of basic battlefield roles, giving the American army the ability to remain as versatile as possible, and specialize only when required. This is further augmented by a light-but-useful variety of Defensive Structures. Unfortunately, no unit is an expert at any specific role, which means that American units always need to work together to overwhelm the enemy, as they will often lose in one-on-one confrontations with similar Axis units. American force build-up is very simplified and straight-forward: Infantry are available en-masse in the early game, then they become supported by heavy weapons, then medium vehicles begin to arrive to provide a better mobile defense, and finally tanks enter the field to supply an armored punch. As a result, American tactics often change during the mid-game from relying on their Infantry-centric (mostly defensive) force to relying on stronger (mostly offensive) tank groups. The cost of American units also factors in strongly here, with infantry being remarkably cheap and expendable, while vehicles are expensive and difficult to replace. Infantry Squads The Americans have only two basic infantry squads, but these form the core of the entire American army for a large proportion of the battle. Cheap and expendable, they go into battle again and again, putting continuous pressure on the enemy. *Engineer Squad: A non-combat 3-man unit armed with poor-quality SMGs. Builds Defensive Structures, conducts repairs, and can specialize in mine-clearing or demolitions. *Riflemen Squad: A basic 6-man unit armed with long rifles. Very cheap to produce and reinforce, strong primarily thanks to its size. With a certain upgrade, becomes a much more dangerous anti-infantry unit. These two squads will often make up the bulk of American units through the early and mid-game, with other units created to support them during both offensive and defensive work. Almost all American strategies revolve around Riflemen Squads leading into battle, and keeping an enemy force in place while other units destroy it. Engineer Squads, of course, built all American base structures and are in charge of putting up the defensive obstacle course that protects their territory. Later on, Engineer Squads become important for maintaining the growing vehicle fleet. The Riflemen Squad lose some importance - though Veterancy and captured equipment can keep them useful alongside the tanks for a long time. Support Infantry The American army relies on several support weapons to assist his core units during the early game. Most are carried by specialized infantry. There are 4 such infantry-operated weapons: * M1917 Browning Heavy Machine Gun Team: A three-man squad operating a portable HMG. A deadly anti-infantry unit - with some anti-vehicle capabilities. * M2 60mm Mortar Team: A three-man squad operating a portable Light Artillery. Good in shelling enemies from the distance, especially when other units hold them in place. Incapable of face-to-face combat though. * Sniper: A lone infantryman with the ability to camouflage himself (disappear). Can kill an infantryman with one shot from a surprising distance, but more useful as an invisible scout. * M1 57mm Anti Tank Gun: A respectable Long-Range Anti-Tank gun, used for ambushes and in support of infantry - as well as difficult to hit due to its low profile. Manned by a crew of 3. These units have little combat value on their own, as they will be easily destroyed by any varied enemy force. In support of infantry or other units however, they can be a devastating addition of firepower. The first three are produced by the Weapons Support Center, making them available rather early in the battle - again, to give aid to the Riflemen Squads and the Defensive Construction. The M1 57mm Anti Tank Gun is produced from the Motor Pool and thus will appear around mid-game - remaining useful for some time, especially in defensive operations. Light Vehicles The only true American Light Vehicle is the Jeep, available almost immediately, from the Barracks. * Jeep: A fast unarmored car, armed only with a light machine-gun. Its long sight-range and camouflage-detection abilities make it great for scouting and hunting snipers. Can also flank infantry quite well. This fast attack car is an excellent scout, capable of "hit-and-run" reconnaissance inside enemy territory. Not really used as a weapon, so much as a tool. Also makes a great patrol vehicle for covering ground and looking out for enemy infiltrations. Medium Vehicles The two American Medium Vehicles make their appearance during the mid game. They are used mostly as support weapons, to assist American infantry and later armor, or provide a strong mobile defense. * M3 Halftrack: This Halftrack transports, escorts and reinforces Infantry in battle. It is a great boon to all infantry-based operations. With an upgrade, it becomes a fearsome light weapon that can mow down enemy squads easily. * M8 Greyhound: This Armored Car is a fast vehicle-hunter, and a great flanker against tanks. Despite its armor it is quite vulnerable to enemy anti-tank weapons, but until they appear it can dominate anything smaller than itself. Also works well in packs. Both vehicles are relatively cheap, and used primarily to support infantry or tanks during the mid and late game. They help deliver sudden strikes against the enemy. A main battlegroup supported by these two vehicles can last significantly longer in combat - if they are properly used. Heavy Vehicles The basic American company has access to three very different tanks, which make up its armored core: * M4 Sherman: The main battle-tank, well-armored and reasonably-armed. American tank tactics revolve around this tank. Though sturdy, it is not meant to take the enemy on alone. Has several upgrades to improve its performance. * M10 Tank Destroyer: A lighter, but not less-dangerous tank. Can easily flank and destroy enemy armor with its strong punch and good protection. Supports other tanks in anti-armor operations. * M4 Crocodile Sherman: A flamethrower tank. Strong against infantry and exceptional against buildings, it can destroy targets under cover with ease. Often rides along with American infantry to root out enemy pockets and prepared positions. With an upgrade installed, can also clear heavy obstacles. American tanks often operate together, in mixed groups (possibly with infantry) and assisted by Medium Vehicles. Though not as strong as some Axis tanks, they use cunning and speed to envelop and destroy the enemy. With an M4 Sherman at the front, the other tanks simply swoop into flanking positions. Enemies cannot last long against this smart application of force. Passive Defenses American defenses consist mostly of elaborate obstacle mazes. They create these at the entrances to their territory, delaying the enemy and receiving early warning before any attack. * Barbed Wire: The most basic obstacle, blocking movement to all infantry. Gaps are often left in the fence, to lure enemies into a trap or a kill-zone. Enemy vehicles can drive straight through it, destroying the wire. Costs nothing. * Tank Traps: An anti-vehicle obstacle. Only the heaviest vehicles can pass through this, though infantry move through unimpeded. Used to prevent an enemy vehicle from entering an area, or leading vehicles into mine-fields or kill-zones. Costs nothing. * Sand Bags: Provides artificial for infantry. Gives infantry a quick position to defend from in otherwise defenseless areas, while also blocking infantry and enemy vehicle movement. Costs nothing. * Mines: A set of buried explosives that will detonate whenever an enemy unit passes over them - causing massive damage. Invisible to most enemy units, and will not be triggered by friendly troops. Costs munitions. These obstacles are often used in unison, creating elaborate traps to lead the enemy into. Although they won't stop an enemy army cold (unless constructed very densely over a long period of time), the delay is often long enough to enable American mobile units to respond to any attack. Finally, another Passive Defense that operates differently from the others: * Observation Post: A sturdy structure placed on top of a Strategic Point. Protects said point from being captured, delaying enemy attack squads. Also increases production in the sector. The Americans will strive to put one of these on any resource-producing sector, and any sector along the front lines. This has important benefits both to the American economy and the security of their territory. Active Defenses The only non-mobile defensive weapon available to the American army is the Machine Gun Emplacement. * Machine Gun Emplacement: A strong anti-infantry position, firing a machine-gun on approaching enemy troops. Can wipe out enemy infiltrators, and provides friendly infantry a place to hide. Can't stand up to an armored attack, however. The Americans build Machine Gun Emplacements along their front lines, to protect against enemy infiltrators. A single emplacement can defeat large numbers of enemy foot soldiers, though it stands no chance against an armored vehicle. This structure is often used in conjunction with obstacles, to create a kill-zone. While it fights the enemy, other units can respond to provide more firepower in its defense. Other Structures The Americans can build two other important support structures not listed above. * Forward Barracks: A neutral building captured and converted by the American infantry, which serves as a reinforcement point as well as a forward production center. * Medic Station: A tent that dispatches Medics to recover injured American Infantrymen. Once 6 have been recovered, will automatically create a new Riflemen Squad, free of charge. While not absolutely necessary, both structures can provide useful assistance to American operations - particularly Infantry operations in the early and mid game. They mostly help keep the infantry force well-supplied and healthy, thus helping keep constant pressure on the enemy - or at least a constant defense force. Veterancy American Veterancy is the simplest and most straight-forward Veterancy system of any faction, and as such is used as the basis for comparison between all Veterancy systems in the game. American units gain experience points during combat, when they kill enemy units. An American unit gains 100% of the experience value of its target, and passes none of it to other units. Therefore, all units must do combat in person in order to gain experience. When enough experience has been collected by a unit, it goes up in Veterancy level - immediately receiving a set of bonuses. There are three Veterancy levels, and therefore three sets of bonuses to be won through combat experience. The bonuses are pre-determined in the game files, tailored to augment a unit's performance based on its specific needs. Therefore, units of different types receive a different bonus at each level. For example, at each level, Riflemen Squads receive a slightly different bonus from Engineer Squads, because they have different needs; And the bonuses given to an M4 Sherman tank at each level are completely different from either of these. Each unit's article outlines its particular bonuses. American units reaching Veterancy Level 3 are therefore quite dangerous - and very valuable. Even the normally-cheap Riflemen Squad, expected to die in combat often, become deadly with enough Veterancy and therefore worth keeping alive as long as possible. Style and Strategy When looked at in the simplest terms, the American a very balanced mix between defensive and offenive capabilities. They can easily and smoothly shift between protecting their territory and launching attacks on the enemy. Most American units are suitable for either role, so even individual units can shift between offensive and defensive roles quickly during the battle, as necessary.This flexibility is what makes the American army strong, and needs to be exercised often in order to win.On the other hand, the American army excels at nothing. It has neither the heavy defenses of the British, nor the heavy firepower of the Axis companies. It can never rest safely behind fortifications - a mobile defensive force must be on-hand to take on any enemy that tries to steal American territory. While attacking, small gains by the Americans are usually the only possible way forward. Fortunately, American units can usually keep whatever they manage to seize, thanks again to their ability to switch from an offensive to a defensive role immediately after combat.All American strategy is bound to a rather linear progression in unit production. The Americans must initially produce a sizeable Infantry force, which may sometimes be used well into the late game. Normally however, the infantry force will become supported by Medium Vehicles about halfway through the battle. Finally, tanks will enter the field, providing the required firepower to forcibly take chunks of territory from the enemy.Although this progression is not absolutely fixed, the cost of American units helps to enforce it. Basic Infantry squads are dirt-cheap for this faction, and can produced in large quantities. Vehicles, especially tanks, are prohibitively costly in the first half ot the game - so even if they become available, they're not very affordable.Nonetheless, flexibility with production, just as with tactics, can yield a lot of interesting ways to play this faction. Each of the sections below lists an alternate strategy that can be used when selecting a different line of advancement through the production tiers. These are usually more difficult to pull off, and require experience with the game - but can yield very powerful results. The Land Grab At the start of the battle, the American player has one Engineer Squad and the ability to make more at the American Headquarters Already, the American player is in a serious dilemma: How to be prepared for first-contact with the enemy. On the one hand, Engineer Squads can start capturing territory straight away - but on the other they will be largely helpless against any enemy unit they meet. Therefore, the player has to ask himself these questions: Which combat-worthy units should be produced to meet the enemy. How long to wait before starting to produce them. How many Engineer Squads must be produced in the meanwhile. If this problem is not considered properly, the Americans can lose a lot of the ground they've captured once contact with the enemy is made. They may lose a few Engineer Squads as well, if they're not careful!Normally, this leads players to the early (sometimes immediate) construction of the Barracks. This base facility will provide cheap and survivable Riflemen Squads to take over as land-grabbers. They capture sectors very quickly, and can defend themselves if necessary. Riflemen Squads can hurry forward to make contact with the enemy or even capture some very forward sectors, while Engineer Squads can take care of sectors closer to the HQ, linking up territory as they go. Note however that the Americans should not rush to capture anything they cannot easily defend!If Riflemen Squads make contact with the enemy, they can usually repel him. Advance no further - this is your basic front line for this battle! Once it is established, and assuming the Americans have grabbed a sufficient amount of land so far, they can begin fortifying it with obstacles.Engineer Squads will usually do this, under covering fire from Riflemen Squads. Resources permitting, mobile defense riflemen should already be patrolling along the gaps between these obstacles, to make sure the enemy doesn't try anything sneaky.The construction process will usually go on for a while. Machine Gun Emplacements must be set up to defend the weakest spots - preferably two or three sectors each, if at all possible. More importantly, both Engineer Squads and Riflemen Squads need to get to work setting up Observation Posts on the highest resource-producing Strategic Points, as well as on the most threatened front-line points.American units performing construction are very vulnerable, which means that the Americans need a way to keep the enemy from attacking them. Fortunately this is faction that can easily go from defense to offense, so the best way to stop an enemy attack is simply to attack them first. This will buy time for construction work to proceed. Alternate Production Strategy Experienced players can build the Weapons Support Center before creating a Barracks. This gives them access to more defensive units - and is more of a long-term investment. Your primary production would be M1917 Browning Heavy Machine Gun Teams, which will fill in for the Riflemen Squads. Their advantage is sheer anti-infantry firepower, which means that they can easily beat early enemy units. They are also very useful against the Panzer Elite faction, since the HMG Team's Armor-Piercing Bursts can knock out their plentiful light vehicles - something Riflemen Squads will have trouble accomplishing. On the other hand, HMG Teams are very vulnerable to flanking maneuvers. This dissuades any forays into enemy territory, and means that HMG Teams need to stick to good defensive positions. With Mortar Teams coming up to support them, these units can hold for quite some time against enemy fire, providing Engineer Squads all the time they need to construct a good defensive line. Obstacles guiding enemies straight into an HMG Team's line of fire usually come first. Without Riflemen Squads, more of the work falls onto the shoulders of the Engineer Squads - especially construction of Observation Posts. However, the firepower from the HMG Teams defending your lines buys more time for this, and delays the need to build Machine Gun Emplacements until later. Early access to Snipers can also significantly increase defensive firepower. Though expensive, they can provide early warning against incoming enemy units (buying HMG Teams time to relocate), and they can gain a lot of experience just setting up close to the lines and shooting at enemy units foolish enough to get close to any of the HMG Teams. It is nonetheless recommended to build the Barracks before long. The enemy will eventually start coming in larger groups which even HMG Teams cannot stop. Riflemen Squads are also necessary in order to take the fight to the enemy, during the Infantry Skirmish phase. Infantry Skirmishes With a defensive line being built, and strong enemy units appearing, it becomes necessary to pre-emptively attack the enemy on his own ground. This is when the Americans enter their Infantry Skirmish phase.For this you'll need sufficient Riflemen Squads out near the front lines, and if possible, additional Support Infantry. With these, the Americans begin making forays into enemy territory.The idea is to make short sorties into enemy territory, killing anything you can, then getting right back to your lines to defend against retaliation.Make shallow attacks, on Strategic Points close to your line. Get the infantry in and take cover positions, while one unit gets to work grabbing the Strategic Point. It's often best to set up some defenses around the point before starting to capture it, if you have the ability to do so. Capturing the sector to let the enemy know where you are, drawing immediate attention to your land-grab attempt. Defend your position, killing as many enemy units as possible.If you can defend the sector adequately, you may be able to expand into it. However, most Axis players will respond to any defeat with a swift counter-attack which can wipe your force out. At this stage, unless you manage to give the enemy a sound beating, don't expect to be able to keep any territory you get. Worse yet - the enemy may take advantage of this and grab one of your unprotected sectors in the meanwhile.Attack in different locations each time, to keep the enemy guessing. Never go deep into enemy territory - Axis mobile defenses will simply surround and destroy your units.A Forward Barracks near the most major hotspots will do wonders at this stage. It can reinforce your units returning from battles in enemy territory, so that they can return to defensive duty in very short order. If a unit is destroyed, the Forward Barracks may be able to replace it entirely (i.e. buy a new one). Again, the whole point is to keep the Forward Barracks close to the front lines, so that infantry squads don't need to retreat all the way to base to receive reinforcements.A Medic Station placed just behind the defensive line will do wonders for your economy. It will automatically create new Riflemen Squads, free of charge, as you lose the ones you have. Support Vehicle Stage Armored and Combined-Arms Assault Command Doctrines Infantry Company Strategy Airborne Company Strategy Armor Company Strategy Playing Against the Americans Single-Player Campaign Invasion of Normandy Operation Market Garden Historical Data Gallery I)Infantry Company: Choosing this company allows infantry and support weapon units to rapidly respond and deploy. This company also allows basic infantry such as Riflemen Squads to build simple defenses such as sand bags and barbed wire and allows Engineer Squads to build the 105mm howitzer. II)Airborne Company: Choosing this company will allow you to access the Airborne Squad, a group of elite infantry that can drop behind enemy lines. This company also provides airdropped support weapons and supplies. P-47 Thunderbolt strafing runs and bombardment become available through this company. III)Armor Company: This company emphasizes building up armor strength. Choosing this company allows you to repair all American vehicles without Engineer Squads and replaces them quickly if destroyed in combat. This company also allows light and medium vehicles such as M3 Halftracks and Jeeps to capture Strategic Points. Sherman Calliopes and the slow but powerful M26 Pershing can only be deployed through this company. * Category:Company of Heroes * Category:Company of Heroes